Italian cuisine · Desserts & Sweets

Neapolitan Mostaccioli

Neapolitan spiced diamond-shaped biscuits with honey and cocoa, fully coated in dark chocolate.

Ingredients · for 8 servings

• 400 g flour
• 150 g sugar
• 100 g honey
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 organic orange (zest)
• 120 ml orange juice
• 1 pinch salt
• 250 g dark chocolate

Instructions

1. Thoroughly mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ground cloves, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a bowl and finely grate in the orange zest.
2. Warm the honey and orange juice until lukewarm, add to the dry ingredients and knead everything into a firm, slightly sticky dough; let rest covered for 30 min.
3. Roll out the dough on a floured surface 1 cm thick and cut with a knife into diamonds of about 7 cm per side.
4. Place the diamonds spaced apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 180°C top/bottom heat for 14–16 min. – they should be firm outside but still soft inside.
5. Let the biscuits cool completely on a rack, then melt the dark chocolate over a bain-marie at no more than 45°C.
6. Dip each diamond into the chocolate with a fork, coat all around, let drip off and let set on parchment paper for 2 hr.